Townsend, Tennessee - Fly Fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, East Tennessee and Western North Carolina

Welcome to the Fishing Report. It is a beautiful morning. It is dawn and soon the sun will rise. I can already see light reflecting off some of the clouds to the East. The temperature is a very comfortable 44 degrees. Traffic was heavier than normal on a Friday morning at 7:30 am. All of the vehicles I saw turned off at the Townsend Elementary School.

This is going to be a nice weekend in the Smokies. Though the mountains have turned to the color of rust, bright patches of color still remain, but not for long. Temperatures this weekend will range from about 37 degrees tonight to a high of 66 degrees tomorrow. The evening temperatures will be warmer Saturday night and we may get some rain then.

Fishing is good in the Smokies. It is excellent for those targeting large browns and pretty good for those just fishing for any trout species. The water levels are at normal, I mean right at normal. The Flow in Little River is currently 105 cubic feet per second (cfs). Median flow for this date is 106 cfs. The water temperature at 7:35 am was 44 degrees.

If I had a choice, I would fish late in the day this weekend. You could fish all day. The water will be warmer later. The trout will be more active. I would probably use nymphs, weighted with a #6 split shot to start. I might add more weight at some point. You may do well using dry flies but I would start and probably stick with nymphs.

Patterns are not that important right now unless you see a hatch of blue wing olives. Otherwise, tie on a Tellico, Prince, Pheasant Tail or Hare’s ear. A Green Weenie might still work as an attractor. I would imagine the sourwood worm has disappeared for the winter since we have had a frost in the valley and several in the higher elevations.

I was off yesterday and did some driving around while running errands. I saw plenty of tall mountains covered with snow. The snowfall in the high elevations early this week was measured in feet, not inches. The high temperature yesterday was 25 degrees at Mt. LeConte. The low was 15 degrees. Not much if any snow melted.

There is no snow accumulation on the low to mid-elevation mountains and none expected.

I spent some time at two marinas on Tellico Lake yesterday. I am looking for cabins to rent on the lower end of the lake and short-term rental slips for our boat. When I’m standing on a boat dock, I feel like a kid again. I practically lived on boat docks and boats when I was young.

Next year, I plan to fish at the lower end of Tellico Lake. The water is more nutrient rich and the fishing is better than in the upper end near here. The tradeoff is, there is almost no pleasure boat traffic at the upper end of the Little Tennessee River, even in the Summer. That is my experience but I work on weekends and I’m never on a lake. I fish on weekdays exclusively. Those areas could be packed with boats on a weekend and I would never know it. On the lower end, the Tellico River joins the Little T. Tellico River runs through farms, picking up nutrients along the way. The density of fish populations is higher on the lower end of the lake.

At the lower end of the lake I did not see one boat under power yesterday. At the upper end I saw one. It was a nice day too. I’m sure the pleasure boaters and anglers will be on the lakes this weekend.

I was happy when I walked in the shop this morning. There were two boxes full of “Brook Trout Restoration” t-shirts, 149 total. They arrived yesterday. We had an error during the last printing. The wrong image was printed on the back of the shirts. We were out of some sizes temporarily. Now we have good numbers of these very popular shirts in short-sleeve and long-sleeve versions.

Fly tying time is here and our classes begin soon. You can check out the classes by clicking on these links: BEGINNER FLY TYING, INTERMEDIATE FLY TYING AND ADVANCED FLY TYING. These classes are taught by Walter Babb and Brian Courtney. Walter is always teaching them. Brian works with Walter if the class is larger. We limit the classes to 8 students. Call the shop at 877-448-3474 to enroll.

The new Fishpond gear should be arriving any day. We scheduled the first ship for November 1st. This company does a great job creating fly fishing packs, vests, accessory bags, boat bags, coolers and lots of other innovative and good looking accessories. The 2013 line includes some new waterproof gear. They should all be on this first shipment.

Gather your gear and go fishing this weekend. We’ll be here if you need us. Remember, we are open on Sundays from 9:00 am til 5:00 pm all year, even in February.